THE government has said it will continue to supervise policies, guidelines and various strategies aiming at averting all possible disasters in the country.
This was said by deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office (Policy, Coordination and Parliamentary Affairs), Ms Ummy Ndeliananga during a symposium to discuss measures that can be put in place to avoid disasters.
"The government shall remain bold on policies, guidelines and regulations in the fight against disasters so that we concentrate in bringing about development," she noted.
According to the deputy minister, the government had established a digital communication platform for disaster risk management, which will help people to get timely information regarding disasters.
This comes just a few days after the government unveiled its National El Niño Contingency Plan and Anticipatory Action for Tanzania Mainland, seeking to mitigate the most direct and immediate impacts of
the anticipated rains forecasted between October and December 2023.
The nine-month plan (September 2023 to June 2024) was handed over for implementation to ministers yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister (DPM),
Dr Dotto Biteko, during a meeting in Dodoma where the ministers discussed how it will be implemented.
In the plan, the government had considered several key priority areas in disaster management by considering collective responsibility which
include coordination, precaution communications and assessment, emergency shelters and camps management.
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Others are nutrition and food security, emergence medical services, water and sanitation, defence and security, emergence rescue measures, transport, communications and energy as well as massive awareness campaigns.
In August 2023, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority (TMA) forecasted that most parts of the country are set to receive above normal to normal rains during the seasonal rains which are expected to be influenced by El-Nino conditions between October and December 2023.
The season according to TMA is specifically for areas that receives rains twice a year which includes regions in Northeastern Highlands and few areas of Eastern part of Lake Victoria basin. The regions are
Kagera, Geita, Mwanza, Shinyanga, southern part of Simiyu, northern part of Kigoma, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Pwani (including Mafia Island), northern part of Morogoro regions together with the isles of Unguja and Pemba.
However, international climate agencies forecast a moderate to strong El Niño continuing into 2024. This will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and climate hazards, ranging from drought to floods
and storms.
